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Come With Me Across the Sea
By Marty Moser
It is December 24. Come share the magic of the time. Fly with me to peek at Christmas customs in other countries.
Let's go first to Holland and watch this family singing around the Christmas tree. The father lights the candles. In the flickering light we can see no presents under the tree and as we look for them our eyes shift back to December 5.
A MAN DRESED as a Catholic priest rides a large white horse to the door. He dismounts and cautiously and mysteriously lets himself into the house.
Two pair of wooden shoes are sitting before the fireplace.
"Jan and Tanja," the saint thinks "They are good children."
He pulls a handful of straw from each shoe and begins to stuff them with toys and candy. "My white beauty will like this straw. Yes, they are very good children. I won't take them home to Spain with me."
As St. Nicholas leaves, our view of Holland fades. So let's fly quickly to Germany. A family there is just getting home from Mass.
AS WE arrive we see three excited children waiting before a closed door. The father bustles in and out of the room behind the door. But he does not let them peek. Finally, he opens the door. A big tree stands in the room, its white candles lighting the darkness. Under the tree is a Nativity scene and pretty packages.
The family holds hands and dances around the tree. This is the biggest day for family celebrations.
They sing: "O. Tannenbaum; O. Tannenbaum, how lovely are thy branches.
"Kris Kringle!"
A man in a red suit and a long white beard stands in the doorway. He is the size of the children's Uncle Wolfgang but he very fat. He has a large sack of presents on his back.
WE NOTICE that the mother soon slips away to the kitchen and brings out a plate of cookies and sweets. It has been a long time since they ate their supper of frankfurters and potato salad. These will be welcome. Christmas is for the family.
Let's leave them now and follow a family in Sweden hitching a team of horses to a sleigh. It is now Christmas Day and they are going to a special Christmas ceremony at church.
When we arrive in Sweden we find they opened their packages last night, too. But we are not too late for the feast, or the smorgasbord.
A 20-pound ham, expertly decorated, sits in the center of the table. The traditional ham was taken from the pagan era when Roman priests
tried in vain to Christianize the heathens who ate only pork.
ALSO ON the table is the traditional cod fish cured in lye, nuts, dates, raisins, and gingerbread cookies. The family is eating rice porridge, another traditional food. Boiled with milk it is served with sugar and cinnamon, and one almond.
"Who got the almond?" everyone asks. "Astrid has the almond!" Astrid will be the next person in the family to marry.
Reminded of pudding, let's hurry back to Great Britain for a bite of the delicious and famous plum pudding.
The English family is waiting for the pudding to be served. But this pudding made of cherry and rum, mixed and dried fruits, has been waiting a month to be eaten. There is still no hurry now. In the kitchen, white rum sauce is carefully poured over the pudding and lighted. And it is carried to the table flaming.
We must hurry back to the U.S. again but let's take just a peek at a South American Christmas in Argentina. There is no snow here.
CHILDREN are owing the packages Papa Noel left them last night. Mother begins to prepare her Christmas dinner, a buffet. She has to hurry because she knows that friends will be dropping in soon to wish them a Joyeaux Noel or Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
The family is busy now so we can slip away and come back home. I wonder what Santa Claus has left us under our own tree.
Christmas Spirit Is Not to Be Bottled
NEW YORK—(UPI)—There will be a Christmas spirit among City College of New York students and their professors this year, but it may not be in bottles.
An official notice read to students this week asked them not to give instructors traditional gifts—usually bottled—because they were becoming more than "a genuine expression of appreciation or affection."
The best way to see America nowadays is to try to get your son, or daughter, into college.—Earl Wilson
Watkins Is Open But Very Quiet On Christmas Eve
When 'tis the night before Christmas at Watkins Hospital 'tis highly unlikely that anything but the mice will be stirring.
University Daily Kansan
As one member of the staff pointed out recently:
"Usually anyone that can limp out in one wav or another, leaves."
But just in case, the hospital will remain open over the entire holiday, Dr. Ralph I. Canuteson, administrator, said.
REGULAR CLINIC HOURS will be maintained (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) with the exception of Christmas and New Years days and Sundays. Normal procedures for Sundays will be followed on these days.
There's hardly any way of predicting if anyone will be confined to the hospital on Christmas day. If one or two students do find themselves in that unfortunate predicament, hospital officials say, there may be some small consolation.
Chances are such students will be too ill to get much in the swing of the Christmas spirit, anyway.
"WE PROBABLY won't have a daily average of five confined patients over the entire holiday period," Dr. Cauteson says.
There are even some who will take advantage of the lull in classroom activity to report to the hospital for elective surgery, the administrator says.
Anyone whose White Christmas turns out to be the sheets of a Watkins hospital bed won't find it a total loss, however.
The hospital menu on Christmas day will include the traditional turkey and dressing dinner - at least for the patient on a regular diet.
A GAILY LIGHTED Christmas tree is traditionally placed in the staff dining room. But there again, any patient able to walk the distance from the wards will most likely have departed for a merrier holiday surrounding.
The lull generally ends right after Christmas as students begin to trickle back to the campus early to "study" and write the overdue papers.
When the Christmas holiday begins to creep in, most students will avoid Watkins like a plague—or until they have to be carried there.
FOR THOSE who may have to spend even a few days of the long holiday in Watkins, the time won't be all devoid of the festive spirit.
Carolers from various groups will make periodic rounds of the hospital starting December 11.
Thursday, Dec. 7, 1961
Open Letter Meets Varied Reactions
An open letter to International Club members, which appeared in yesterday's Kansan, met with varied reaction last night from several club members.
The letter, written by Petra Moore, Lawrence senior and until recently secretary of the club, spoke of charges that the club's meetings are "dull and appear to be slapped together at the last minute." She wrote that she had heard many complaints that the organization is not offering anything this semester.
CLAUS BUECHMANN, Keil. Germany graduate and treasurer of the club said, "There is a certain amount of truth in what she says, but the wav she says it is vague."
In answer to Miss Moore's statement that "there is a general disorganization in the executive due to the conspicuous absence of committee meetings," Buechmann said;
"I don't know if setting regular weekly meetings of the executive committee will solve the problem she mentions. I feel that if she wanted this it could have been done earlier."
Raja Mohammed Naib, Jhelun, Pakistan graduate student said. "There seems to be a section in every big organization dissatisfied with the way things are going on.
"BUT MORE important is to ask, what is the purpose of the club? It is to exchange ideas and to create international understanding. I have been with the International Club
for four years and this is the only year we have lived up to that purpose." said Naib
He questioned, "Why does an International Club exist? Does it just mean good music and dancing on Friday nights? No, it means contact with American students, contact with the University, and contact with the townspeople."
Naib explained that the executive committee of the club is elected by the members. He said that the committee's purpose is to coordinate, contact, and plan for the organization.
"It a member has a complaint he should go to the executive he helped elect. If there is a complaint about money for example, he should go to the treasurer."
NAIB ADDED. "The best testimony of the effectiveness of the club this year is the tremendous increase in membership."
Vinay Valia, Bombay, India freshman said, "I think that some of what Miss Moore had to say is certainly true. The club was definitely more efficient last semester than this one. Because of People-to-People, however, many people are in the club.
LALIT VALIA, Bombay, India said, "I didn't quite get the meaning of her letter. I didn't understand who we should blame for the problems she presents.
in the club is not progressive enough I would blame the committee (executive) not some person."
Quality Costly —
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discussion groups of about 16 students. These small groups meet once a week to discuss the material presented in the lecture side of the course.
Another example, he said, is the course in Elements of Sociology, which combines a lecture section including 373 students with a number of smaller discussion groups—usually numbering about 50 students—where the lecture material can be more effectively discussed.
"There is no single answer as to which size of class is the most educationally sound," Dean Smith said. "The type of subject matter to be presented, the age level of the students within the course, the educational background of the students and the abilities of the faculty members who will teach the course must always be considered when deciding what size a class must be.
He stressed the importance of the
type of subject matter to be presented.
"IN ANY AREA where you're trying to give the basic broad background information for a course, the size of the class can be quite large," he said. "But when you're more interested in discussion than in learning specific subject matter—in courses like human relations, for example—you can't have large classes.
"The magic formula is to put all these factors—the type of subject matter to be presented, the age level and educational background of the students within the course, and the ability of the faculty members who will teach the course—together to come out with a combination that pleases everyone. In doing this, you can't escape taking the size of the class into consideration, but no single size is best for all situations."
Law Students Spark Christmas Tree 'War'
By Dennis Farney
The spirit of Christmas may be here, but the spirit of competition lives on—especially for six KU students engaged in a fervent battle to sell Christmas trees.
The first lot, located in a Dairy Queen parking lot at the intersection of 19th and Massachusetts Street, is operated by Paul DeBauge, Emporia second year law student, and cousin Richard DeBauge, Emporia senior.
The six students have set up competing tree lots facing each other across Massachusetts Street.
"We offer a free Dairy Queen cone to everyone in the car when a family drives up and buys a tree," he said.
PAUL DEBAUGE, on duty last night, explained the strategy employed by the two partners.
"And we've retained a monopoly of the dormitories and houses on the Hill."
"At least we've retained that much of the market we had before they horned in."
He looked across the street and smiled grimly.
As he spoke, strains of "Jingle Bells" drifted over from a brightly lit used car lot across the street.
"You know," he said. "they've got four students on duty over there. I think they're triving to wear us down."
Across the street, the opposition-stocked with more than 750 trees-sat huddled around a small desk in an office located off the car lot.
UPON ENTERING the lot, a prospective customer first meets—not a salesman—but instead a large coffee percolator and a sign: "Free coffee. Help yourself."
Pat Little, Wichita third year law student, explained the operation of the four-man firm.
The idea for selling the trees, he said, originated last year with Howard Dutcher, Watoma, Wis., third year law student.
"Howard's father grows the trees commercially," Little explained. "We pick out the trees during the summer and then go up to Wisconsin over Thanksgiving vacation to cut and load them."
ALSO PART of the group, he said. are two more third year law students: Jed Hurley, Wichita, and Jim Lowe, Winfield.
Little explained a problem common to both groups of competing students—customers who confuse one lot for another.
"Customers have come here thinking they were across the street," he said. "And I'm sure it's happened on the other side of the street, too, because our advertisements are so similar."
BOTH GROUPS expect a sales peak this weekend. Thus far, the DeBauge combination has sold about 250 trees. Little's group has sold 470.
To what does Little attribute this selling edge?
"Just better trees," he smiled smugly.
And so goes the local Christmas tree war.
SEE FOR YOURSELF—Tree sales are brisk in local competition.